Jewel of the Sea Southern Caribbean Photo Review- March 28, 2015

[Badger-Badger]

I'm so excited to see this! Wish we'd had the chance to meet onboard, but I'm happy to get a chance to read about your trip!

 

We had a fabulous time on this cruise too. With just our one carryon ;)

[usckatieh]

With just our one carryon ;)

 

 

Hehe- you are truly amazing! Yes, I wish we could have made it to the meet and greet but time got away from me.

[Luv06012012]

Hi Katie,

 

I'm chiming in again to say I'm loving your review! I can't wait to see your St. Maarten review....it is one of my favorite places!

 

I don't want to hijack your review and send it off topic...would you mind emailing me? I have a question about your daughter's language immersion program as my little guy is going to be starting one in the fall? You can reach me at dmckeown1@msn.com if you don't mind.

 

Thanks and can't wait to read more...

[Arubamoose]

Can't wait for the rest as we are will be on the Jewel this Saturday.

Love your photos and the inclusion of the Cruise Compass.

Taking notes.

 

Finish QUICK!!! Thanks!

[Az's Cruising Nana]

We are following the same itinerary on the 25th. We are also on the same Thenford Grey tour! Thanks so much for the great review and the fabulous photography. You have a beautiful family. I have forwarded your review to the two couples traveling with us. Cannot wait until your done!

 

Sue

[beej]

I am totally in awe of the infra red photographs. They are so beautiful. Can't wait for our cruise on the Jewel. BTW, the beach looks wonderful.

[LoveThoseSeaDays]

Hi,

This has become the highlight of my day to watch for your glorious photos!

Two questions: do you recall the cost of the onboard photo package?

And did you do My Time Dining? I noticed on the Compasses that you posted that the show times change from day to day. We enjoy going to the shows, but am wondering if we'd simply have to book our reservation for the next evening once the Compass arrives in our room?

Cheers and many thanks

[usckatieh]

Hi,

This has become the highlight of my day to watch for your glorious photos!

Two questions: do you recall the cost of the onboard photo package?

And did you do My Time Dining? I noticed on the Compasses that you posted that the show times change from day to day. We enjoy going to the shows, but am wondering if we'd simply have to book our reservation for the next evening once the Compass arrives in our room?

Cheers and many thanks

 

You guys are too kind! I only purchased individual photos which if I remember right was $28 each. Yipes! With the Gold level C&A, you get 50% off the 2nd photo, so I purchased 2. Oh, I found on my old compass that the All Inclusive Package is $299 but on Day 2 they offered it for $250. I'm not entirely sure what that includes, but I think it might be listed under the "Add-on"s in your reservation if you have one coming up. I never really pay attention because I know I'm just going to buy one or two family photos and that's it.

 

On the Jewel, we didn't have to do reservations for the shows. My in-laws said there was plenty of seating at each one.

[usckatieh]

 

 

 

 

 

[usckatieh]

Day 4- St Maarten

 

We went on a great tour of St Maarten last trip, so we decided this would be the perfect opportunity to have a lazy morning, take the water taxi into town, shop a little bit and then go back to enjoy having the ship to ourselves!

 

I actually got to sleep in until about 8:30 (we usually wake up at 5:30am every morning so 8:30 is sleeping in!) and I got to see how busy the Windjammer can get around 9:00-9:30. It was hopping!

 

We got off the boat about 10:30 and took the water taxi over to Philipsburg. The water taxi is like a big shuttle boat which for a rate of $7 all day or $5 one way will ferry you the short hop over to Great Bay/Philipsburg area.

Here’s a snapshot of Kasiah and Grandma on a fairly empty water taxi- they leave about every 5-10 minutes so it doesn’t take long to fill up.

 

 

Here’s a view of Great Bay Beach from where the taxi drops you off. Personally, I was hesitant to let the kids swim there after reading about pollution issues in the bay a year or two back.

 

 

Here’s the first row of shopping areas.

 

 

We walked around a few rows of shopping streets and felt very safe the whole time. In most of the small shops, it seemed almost expected you to barter on the price. Grandma found a tablecloth, Grandpa picked up a chest strap for his go pro, and they got a jingly Indian-style skirt for Kasiah and some toy cars for Patrick. The stuff for sale was mostly what you’d expect at port shopping- electronics, jewelry, alcohol, perfume, etc.

 

Here’s a few jet skiers having fun in the Bay

 

 

I thought I’d add a little map so you can see how close the water taxi is to where the ships are docked and where it drops you off.

 

 

View of the port area from the 12th deck of the Jewel

 

[usckatieh]

If you want to see more of St Maarten, here’s a link to my last cruise review where we toured all over the Dutch and French sides. Since I didn’t have many photos from our short hop on the island, I’ll post a little St Maarten eye candy from last cruise!

 

 

Great Bay

 

La Galion Beach

 

Roofs of Orient Beach

 

 

[usckatieh]

Upon returning to the ship, we enjoyed a leisurely Windjammer lunch and then while a few grownups napped, the kids and I decided to do some exploring and hit the pools! Here’s a photo of the pool deck on a port day. No need to arm-wrestle slippery sunbathers over who get the next free chair- hurray!

 

 

The solarium from above. It was nice that this Solarium had an open roof so that it wasn’t nearly as oppressively hot/humid in there as the Solariums on the Oasis and Freedom were.

 

 

Here’s a photo of the arcade. You have to walk through there to get to the drop off for kids club. I see what you did there, Royal Caribbean- hehe.

 

 

The waterslide opened at 3:00 so we had a little fun there!

 

 

Here’s Patrick enjoying his favorite part of the kid pool- the shower. Go figure!

 

 

You can see that the waterslide isn’t very tall but it’s still a good time. Just right for 6-10 yr olds. I took a little video with the waterproof camera of Patrick and I going down so you can get a feel for it. The video starts slow as we wait for the person before us to get to the bottom. Don’t blink once the ride starts, it’s a quick slide!

 

 

The kiddie pool area. It’s probably only 2 feet deep there.

 

[usckatieh]

The climbing wall

 

 

Our St Maarten port neighbor, the Independence of the Sea! Does anybody see themselves?

 

 

Stretched panoramic

 

Our nightly towel animal reading the compass

 

 

Since this was a quieter day, I thought I’d mention some of the things I packed and some things I wish I’d packed.

 

Things I brought and used

• Shoe organizer- best cruise idea ever! Keeps the little stuff like sunscreen, sunglasses, medications, hand sanitizers, hair ties, and yes even shoes organized and available at your fingertips. We hung ours $8 Walmart organizer on the back of the bathroom door on the Jewel.

• Clips for bathing suits on balcony- I like to hang the swimsuits to dry on the balcony overnight and I didn’t want them to blow away. I tried to remember to take them down during the day since occasionally they’ll swing the sprayers around to clean the balconies, but I know on the Freedom they did leave a note to warn us when they did.

• Travel size Laundry soap- DH wanted to freshen up a shirt that he wanted to wear for dinner the next night and the laundry service would take too long, so we broke open a single use Tide packet from the travel section at Target and did a hand wash with just a touch of Tide in the sink.

• Small bills, a.k.a. cash- With all the taxis and transfers we had traveling to 6 islands it was nice to always have a handful of ones or fives to tip as needed. Plus, exact change keeps you from getting change in local currency on the island- although I did enjoy finding the Barabados dollar coin that ended up in the bottom of my purse by the end of the week.

• Snorkel and mask- As I mentioned before, renting a mouth piece kind of gives me the heebie jeebies so I was glad I took the extra suitcase room and packed those parts of our gear. I knew I’d find somewhere to rent flippers but if I went somewhere more remote, I would have packed those too. Our first snorkel experience convinced me that we need to do that more often!

 

This that I brought and did not use

• Sewing kit- Fortunately no wardrobe malfunctions

• Medications- I had everything from kids and adult allergy medication, motion sickness pills/sea bands, stomach remedies, all the way to powdered pedialyte and a thermometer in case the kids came down with something. The only thing we used was the Dayquil tablets I brought (plus the backup supply we grabbed at CVS) for DH’s cold and my trust daily Bonine pill, because I’m too paranoid to sail without it.

 

I’ll probably still bring all that stuff again, but I’m glad we didn’t need it this trip! I think I removed most of my luggage clutter on the last trip.

 

Things that I wished I had

• Every day, I was kicking myself for not buying bottled water bottles from CVS for excursions but also for in our room too. The tap water is lukewarm at best so it would have been helpful to be able to toss a few water bottles in the ice bucket so we had some cool water in the room.

[NemoCrownie]

Katie, fabulous review, awesome pictures and a beautiful (& photogenic) family! I am really enjoying this. We were on the Jewel for a B2B in Jan/Feb. and had such a great time that we booked the same 2 weeks for 2016.

 

Regarding water - we used to take on a case and then discovered that the ships water tastes fine to me. We now take 2 collapsible water bottles per person, fill them with ice water (using glasses to fill them), put them in the fridge and we have water for the next day's adventure - I'm cheap and also enjoy not schlepping the water onboard . I may grab some more of these bottles so we can keep one in the fridge for drinking in our room.

 

Can't wait for the rest of your vacation. Thanks so much for all of the info. - I always learn something.

[pinkroses]

Katie, fabulous review, awesome pictures and a beautiful (& photogenic) family! I am really enjoying this. We were on the Jewel for a B2B in Jan/Feb. and had such a great time that we booked the same 2 weeks for 2016.

 

Regarding water - we used to take on a case and then discovered that the ships water tastes fine to me. We now take 2 collapsible water bottles per person, fill them with ice water (using glasses to fill them), put them in the fridge and we have water for the next day's adventure - I'm cheap and also enjoy not schlepping the water onboard . I may grab some more of these bottles so we can keep one in the fridge for drinking in our room.

 

Can't wait for the rest of your vacation. Thanks so much for all of the info. - I always learn something.

 

Where do you find collapsible water bottles?

[NemoCrownie]

Where do you find collapsible water bottles?

Any outdoor store. We had a teacher recommend them for a trip to France, at that time Platypus was the only brand. I got ours at Eddie Bauer but I have seen them other places. I did a quick search and found this link so you can see what they are.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Vapur-10159-Parent-Element-Bottle/dp/B00GDEP85Y#immersive-view_1429204792686

[usckatieh]

Any outdoor store. We had a teacher recommend them for a trip to France, at that time Platypus was the only brand. I got ours at Eddie Bauer but I have seen them other places. I did a quick search and found this link so you can see what they are.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Vapur-10159-Parent-Element-Bottle/dp/B00GDEP85Y#immersive-view_1429204792686

 

Awesome suggestions! Thanks!

[FunCruisinFamily]

Thank you for taking the time to share your pictures and details of your trip. We are taking our two year old twins this November on the Brilliance. We have been on Oasis and loved it, but wanted to try a smaller ship. However, I was worried the ship would not be family friendly, but your review is so fun. I am getting really excited.

[usckatieh]

 

 

 

 

[usckatieh]

Day 5- Dominica

 

The day we stopped in Dominica, I wanted to wake up early (6:30am) and get a few photos of the ship while it was still quiet. Note to early-birds like myself and my husband, the Windjammer on the Jewel does not open until 7:30am so there’s no use in trying to catch an early breakfast. This morning the only people around were runners on the track and some very dedicated individuals working out in the gym.

 

I tried to grab the highlights of the ship, deck by deck that I haven't taken pictures of already- so I now present your Jewel of the Sea ship tour!!!

 

Here’s the elevator bank from where I started on deck 7. Just for the record, the elevators were almost always busy- I haven’t been on a ship yet where they weren’t busy, but I think the Oasis handles it the best because people seem to split evenly between the forward and aft elevators. There are a few forward elevators on the Jewel but they never really seemed practical for our starting point or our end destination.

 

 

I LOVED that you could see everything out the glass windows as you were on the elevators.

 

 

As you can see, we had intermittent rain/fog sailing to Dominica this morning.

 

Deck 4- Coral Theater

 

 

Royal Caribbean Online- we did buy one day of wireless because it was $50 for 24 hrs or $60 for 2 hours (hourly was $30/hr) and my husband said it wasn’t fast, but it wasn’t as slow as he expected either, so that’s something. If you need to use a PC, they had several locations around the ship with computers available.

 

 

I’ve already posted the photos of the dining room so instead here’s a MDR breakfast menu.

 

[usckatieh]

Deck 4, cont.

 

Looking up in the Centrum (I hope I'm spelling that right!)

 

 

Fancy waterfalls

 

 

The live music area and the green staircase I mentioned on picture night

 

 

 

 

Excursion desk and Guest Services

 

[usckatieh]

Deck 5- Promenade deck. The walkway goes almost all the way around the ship. We had fun watching flying fish jump out of the water from here on our sea day. It also a nice place for a quiet evening walk.

 

 

Shops- This area is the reason why I like the Freedom/Oasis Promenade better than the Centrum. When there’s a sale going on, you can barely move through the crowd in the narrow hallways of the shops. The photo ordering desk is behind the shops and it keeps the same hours as the shops, so disappointingly there was no photo browsing before those hours (usually 4pm-late on part days).

 

 

Café Latte-tudes is on Deck 5. For fee Starbucks coffee and other goodies. Standard coffee shop pricing. They did open early.

 

 

Deck 6- Champagne Bar

 

 

[usckatieh]

Deck 6, cont.

Schooner’s Bar- there’s a cute fake ship the kids can play on/take picture on in the entrance to this area.

 

 

It has a nice ambiance

 

 

Chops Grille is also next to Schooners- here’s a menu. I believe the cost for dinner is an additional $35/person.

 

 

Portfinos Restaurant Menu . $25/person for dinner. We caught them for lunch at $20/person and $7/kid on the sea day (coming up).

 

 

Casino Royal

 

 

A random distraught piece of artwork

 

[usckatieh]

Deck 11-

A ghost town pool deck

 

 

 

Solarium- this is a great space

 

 

Apparently there a little deli in the Solarium too. Here’s the hours

 

 

Hot tub

 

 

Forward elevators

 

 

The Windjammer is also on Deck 11. Sorry I didn’t take any photos of that because it was closed in the morning, but I do LOVE the outdoor aft seating! It’s a great way to start a lovely Caribbean morning.

[usckatieh]

Deck 12- Has the gym, jogging track, Adventure Ocean, Kid’s pool, and sports court. I didn’t want to be a creeper and take pictures of people while they were working out so I don’t have any of the gym, but here’s the basketball/soccer court

 

 

Deck 13- “Walk the plank” over to the rock wall. Kiddie pool and waterslide on the right

 

 

Mini-golf course

 

 

 

Oh, here’s a trick for you! If you want to grab a seat in the outdoor area of the Windjammer before they officially open the doors, there’s a stairway on the aft of deck 12 that sneaks you into the back of the Windjammer. We also used this to get my husband to the drink machine after the Windjammer closed at 9pm.

 

Aft view- deck 12